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- 2023
- Films We Like
- 1 h 47 m
- 2023
- Films We Like
- 1 h 47 m
Summary A chronicle of the life and times of Nam June Paik, a pillar of the American avant-garde in the 20th century, widely regarded as the father of video art, who coined the phrase “Electronic Superhighway,” and is arguably the most famous Korean artist in modern history.
- 2023
- Films We Like
- 1 h 47 m
- 2023
- Films We Like
- 1 h 47 m
Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
79
User Score
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Summary A chronicle of the life and times of Nam June Paik, a pillar of the American avant-garde in the 20th century, widely regarded as the father of video art, who coined the phrase “Electronic Superhighway,” and is arguably the most famous Korean artist in modern history.
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 14 Critic Reviews
79
93% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
7% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 14 Critic Reviews
79
93% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
7% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Every so often, you’ll see a portrait-of-the-artist documentary that’s so beautifully made, about a figure of such unique fascination, whose art is so perfectly showcased by the documentary format, that when it’s over you can’t believe the film hadn’t existed until now. It feels, in its way, essential. Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV is like that.
Amanda Kim’s admiring documentary Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV, makes a case that Paik may not have merely been one of the most influential of the avant garde, he may have been one of the most influential artists of the 20th Century - period, one who invented a new visual canvas.
This very enjoyable film explores his extensive body of work, much of it daringly ahead of its time; it was Paik who, long before the concept of the internet had taken root, first broached the idea of an electronic superhighway.
The overwhelming sense of vocation necessary for such a life is almost awe-inspiring, although Paik’s own jokey, opaque persona seems to exist as a rebuke to any reaction as bourgeois as that.
Paik is undeniable, creating despite lean times (and slowing after a 1996 stroke).
For anyone interested in the origins of what we now call video art, not to mention mass media and the internet, it’s essential viewing. Paik was a true visionary who foresaw the virtual world we now live in, and Kim’s film chronicles how he channeled that vision through madcap sculptures and installations that took technology to places it was never meant to go.
The film might have benefited from taking a page out of Nam June Paik’s Zen for Film and slowed down its flow.
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Production Company
Curatorial,
Lone Palm Films,
Octopus Originals,
Universal Remote
Release Date Mar 24, 2023
Duration 1 h 47 m
Genres
Awards
The Guardian's Best Films
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Sundance Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
DocAviv Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
